MARAT HAS DECIDED TO END HIS SEASON AND WILL NOT PLAY ANY MORE TOURNAMENTS THIS YEAR.

Thursday 18 October 2007

Marat was not very happy with his standard of play at the Madrid Masters and has decided after discussion with his coach Hernan Gumy and his management that it would be better to finish his 2008 season now. His mountain adventure which he thoroughly enjoyed, took him out of his rythm and also left him with no energy. He thought he was ready coming back in Moscow but found that the stress of playing back to back tournaments was too much and his body just was not ready to cope with it. He thought he could play at a good level but it didn't happen.

He will take some time off to get his energy levels back and then in 3 weeks time will meet with his coach and they will spend a long period of practice time in Valencia - cleaning up his game and working hard on his approach, his work ethic and his general attitude to the year ahead. The intention is to be ready for the Australian season. Marat knows his ranking will drop but feels it is better to get himself ready for the new season rather than push at this stage.

He will not play in the Davis Cup Final in the US. Basically the Davis Cup team left it up to him to make the decision and Marat decided that right now there are 4 better players than him who are in form and can make sure they play to the best of their ability for Russia. Recently Davydenko won Moscow again and Tursunov won in Bangkok - both on hardcourts which is the surface that the Final will be played on. Marat was proud to be involved in the run up to the Final and has every faith in his fellow players that they will perform to their very best ability for Russia and make it a hard contest against the US.

Marat would like to say thank you to all his fans for their love and support this year through the difficult times and hopes they will continue to support him as he strives to find the level he needs to play well again.

Calm down, everybody.
I don't think he'll retire.
He just didn't get the break he needed because he took the wrong choice and went to the mountain which broke him. He needs a LONG REAL SUCCESSFUL REWARDING break.